Went go-karting the weekend with a group of mates and had a great time totally reccomend doing it. Whilst there I totally got the whole lift off oversteer thing, its something ive only read about in motoring mags but never really experienced due to only ever owning FWD cars. The regular track users amongst you will understand it more but I now fully understand the importance of not backing off the thottle mid bend but theres one thing I still dont get. How comes FWD cars still get lift off oversteer cars such as 205Gti, R5 turbo and the likes but the works Astra I drive has nothing. Any ideas?
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Car handling
- Thread starter Paranoia
- Start date
Went go-karting the weekend with a group of mates and had a great time totally reccomend doing it. Whilst there I totally got the whole lift off oversteer thing, its something ive only read about in motoring mags but never really experienced due to only ever owning FWD cars. The regular track users amongst you will understand it more but I now fully understand the importance of not backing off the thottle mid bend but theres one thing I still dont get. How comes FWD cars still get lift off oversteer cars such as 205Gti, R5 turbo and the likes but the works Astra I drive has nothing. Any ideas?
Renault Laguna Coupe
My Astra never did it either, but then I never put it on a track. This phenomenon can be really useful though, especially on a track when your tyres are close to giving up. A bit of oversteer can be damn useful when youre heading for the scenery in a wildly understeering Clio!
Lift off oversteer is related to weight transfer, not drive train. When cornering hard and on the limit if you back off or break, the weight of the car will try to transfer to the front. The resulting lack of weight over the back wheels results in loss of grip and the back end letting go. Your Astra will do it, especially in the wet. try a little harder.
Rich-D
ClioSport Club Member
E90 LCI 330d
It is to do with weight transfer...
When you lift off the throttle, suddenly the weight is now transfered to the front and the rear goes light, which one some cars allows the back end to drift out.
My old 106 GTi was great for this and was very predictable and easy to control. You could simply throw it into a corner, play on the throttle and hang the back end out. Great on trackdays!
But... some cars can be quite vicious and easy to spin, just depends on how the suspension is setup.
Most manufacturers plump for the safer option and set their cars up to understeer on throttle and be neutral off throttle. A mk1 172 is like this actually and you really need to provoke it to get it to go.
You can soon alter any cars handling though...
Paranoia,
have a look here, advises all you need to know on the subject..
http://www.ukcar.com/sframe.htm?/features/tech/handling/nonneutral.htm
the reason cars such as " 205Gti, R5 turbos" are more prone to this issue is due to the rear suspension design "trailing arms" its a typical design used by French manufactures.... when you lift off, the weight is catapulted to the front of the car making the rear prone to flicking out.
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